Natural mist humidifier

ABSTRACT

A mist humidifier includes a water supply, at least one nebulization device and at least one heater mechanism. The nebulization device nebulizes at least a portion of a flow of water from the water supply and discharges a flow of mist particles. The heater mechanism selectively heats at least a portion of the flow of mist particles.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/400,544 filed Jul. 29, 2010.

BACKGROUND

This disclosure relates generally to humidifiers. More particularly,this disclosure relates to humidifiers for increasing the moisturecontent of the ambient atmosphere.

There are three types of conventional humidifiers. In the first type, aheater mechanism to produce hot steam. This type of humidifier is themost efficient at saturating the ambient atmosphere with moisture andthe heater mechanism bacteria from becoming a problem. However, theboiling water produced by the heater mechanism create safety issues ifthe humidifier is tipped over or hit sufficiently hard to cause thewater to spill out of the humidifier.

The second type utilizes forced evaporation to humidify the ambientatmosphere. The forced evaporation mechanism includes a media that maybe soaked with water and a fan. The media provides a surface that breaksdown the surface tension of water. The motorized fan provides adirectional airflow profile that carries away the moisture from themedia surface to the ambient atmosphere. The advantage of this system isits simplicity and the saturation rate of moisture in ambient air.However, the relatively stagnant water source and the wetted surfacearea of the media provide ideal environments for the growth of bacteria.Accordingly, periodic maintenance is required to clean the media andsterilize the water source.

In the third type, a nebulization device breaks the water source intowater particles, often with a visually impressive effect. However, theultra-sonic transducers commonly used as nebulization devices can onlyproduce water particle sizes in the range of 3-5 mm. Since these waterparticles are relatively large, they do not remain suspended in the airlong enough to effectively saturate the ambient atmosphere, the dropletsfalling out of suspension to cover the surrounding surfaces withmoisture.

SUMMARY

There is provided a mist humidifier comprising a water supply, at leastone nebulization device and at least one heater mechanism. Thenebulization device nebulizes at least a portion of a flow of water fromthe water supply and discharges a flow of mist particles. The heatermechanism selectively heats at least a portion of the flow of mistparticles.

The mist humidifier may further comprise a fan and a flow chamber, wherethe nebulization device discharges the flow of mist particles into theflow chamber and the fan draws the flow of mist particles from the flowchamber, through the heater mechanism, and discharges the flow of mistparticles from the humidifier.

The water supply may comprise a tank forming a primary water supply, asecondary water supply, a pump and a supply line, where water isdelivered from the primary water supply to the secondary water supplythrough the supply line by the pump and water is drawn from thesecondary water supply by the nebulization device.

The water supply may also comprise a recycle flow path to carry waterfrom the secondary water supply to the primary water supply.

The mist humidifier may further comprise first and second nebulizationassemblies, with each of the nebulization assemblies including one ofthe nebulization devices.

The heater mechanism may be disposed in the first nebulization assemblyand be selectively operable to heat the flow of mist particles.

The mist humidifier may further comprise a fan to blow the flow of mistparticles from the first and second nebulization assemblies and from thehumidifier.

The mist humidifier may further comprise first and second fans to blowthe flow of mist particles from the first and second nebulizationassemblies, respectively, and from the humidifier. Each of thenebulization assemblies may also include a flow chamber and an airsupply line, with the air supply line of the first nebulization assemblyconnecting the first fan to the flow chamber of the first nebulizationassembly, the air supply line of the second nebulization assemblyconnecting the second fan to the flow chamber of the second nebulizationassembly. The heater mechanism may be disposed in the air supply line ofthe first nebulization assembly.

The nebulization device may have multiple nebulization locations or thehumidifier may include multiple nebulization devices. The heatermechanism may be positioned downstream of one of the nebulizationlocations or one of the nebulization devices, with a baffle disposedintermediate the heater mechanism and the one of the nebulizationlocations or the one of the nebulization devices.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure may be better understood and its numerous objectsand advantages will become apparent to those skilled in the art byreference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a first embodiment of a mist humidifierin accordance with the disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a second embodiment of a misthumidifier in accordance with the disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a third embodiment of a mist humidifierin accordance with the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a top view of the embodiment of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a fourth embodiment of a misthumidifier in accordance with the disclosure; and

FIG. 6 is a top view of the embodiment of FIG. 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

With reference to the drawings wherein like numerals represent likeparts throughout the several figures, a mist humidifier in accordancewith the present disclosure includes at least one nebulization device,such as an ultrasonic transducer, and at least one heater mechanism,such as a wire heater or a positive temperature coefficient (PTC)heater.

With reference to FIG. 1, a first embodiment of the mist humidifier 10includes an enclosure forming a tank 12 that holds the primary watersupply 14. Water from the primary water supply 14 is delivered to asecondary water supply 16 by way of a pump 18 and a supply line 20.Water is drawn from the secondary water supply 16 into the nebulizationchamber of a nebulization device 22, which nebulizes the water anddischarges a cool water mist 24 into a flow chamber 26. A fan 28 drawsthe mist 24 from the flow chamber 26, through a heater mechanism 30, anddischarges the mist 24 through an air flow path 32 into the ambientatmosphere 34. If the heater mechanism 30 is energized, the heatgenerated by the heater mechanism 30 converts the cool mist to a warmmist. In addition, heat absorption by the mist 24 causes evaporation ofsome of the water mass from the relatively large surface area of themist particles 36, reducing the size of the mist particles 36 andthereby increasing the ambient atmosphere saturation efficiency of thehumidifier 10. If an excess of water is supplied from the primary watersupply 14 to the secondary water supply 16, this excess flow returns tothe primary water supply by a recycle flow path 38.

With reference to FIG. 2, a second embodiment of the mist humidifier 40includes first and second nebulization assemblies 42, 44. Water from awater supply 46 held in a tank 48 is delivered to the water chamber 50,50′ of each nebulization assembly 42, 44 by way of a pump 52 and asupply line 54. If an excess of water is supplied from the water supply46, this excess flow returns to the water supply by a recycle flow path56. The nebulization device 58, 58′ of each nebulization assembly 42, 44draws water from the assembly water chamber 50, 50′ and discharges acool water mist 60. The cool water mist is blown through an assemblyflow chamber 62, 62′ and then into the ambient atmosphere 34.

The mist humidifier 40 may include a single fan 64 for use with bothnebulization assemblies 42, 44 or two fans, with one fan associated witheach of the nebulization assemblies 42, 44. A heater mechanism 66 isdisposed in the flow chamber 62 of the first nebulization assembly 42.If the heater mechanism 66 is energized, the heat generated by theheater mechanism 66 converts the cool mist to a warm mist. In addition,heat absorption by the mist 60 causes evaporation of some of the watermass from the relatively large surface area of the mist particles,reducing the size of the mist particles.

It should be appreciated that the humidifier 40 may be operated in anumber of modes. For example, the humidifier 40 may be operated withonly a single nebulization assembly 42, 44 in operation or with bothnebulization assemblies 42, 44 in operation. The first nebulizationassembly 42 may be operated with the heater mechanism 66 energized orde-energized. The humidifier control system 68 allows variable speedoperation of the fan(s) 64 and variable heat output operation of theheater mechanism 66. Accordingly, the humidifier 40 may 1) produce coolmist only (second nebulization assembly 44 only; first and secondnebulization units 42, 44 with heater mechanism 66 de-energized); 2)produce warm mist only (first nebulization 42 unit only with heatermechanism 66 energized); or 3) produce a mix of cool and warm mist(first and second nebulization units 42, 44 with heater mechanism 66energized).

With reference to FIGS. 3 and 4, a third embodiment of the misthumidifier 70 includes either multiple nebulization devices 72, 74, 76or a single nebulization device capable of nebulizing water at multiplelocations, for example a three head ultrasonic transducer. A heatermechanism 78 is positioned above one of the nebulizationdevices/nebulization locations 74 and a baffle 80, such as a metalsheet, is positioned between the nebulization device/nebulizationlocation 74 and the heater mechanism 78 such that the mist 82 producedby the nebulization device/nebulization location 74 is diverted aroundthe baffle 80 and a portion 84 of the mist 82 produced by thenebulization device/nebulization location 74 is blocked from flowingdirectly into the heater mechanism 78.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the nebulizationdevices/nebulization locations 72, 74, 76 are arranged side-by-side withthe heater mechanism 78 and the baffle 80 disposed above the centernebulization device/nebulization location 74. In this arrangement, themist 82 produced by the nebulization devices/nebulization locations 72,74, 76 exits the humidifier 70 as three distinct flows 86, 86′, 86″ ofmist. While there may be some mixing of mist 82 produced by each of thenebulization devices/nebulization locations 72, 74, 76, the two outermist streams 86′, 86″ and the center mist stream 86 exiting thehumidifier 70 are predominantly produced by the two outer nebulizationdevices/nebulization locations 72, 76 and the center nebulizationdevice/nebulization location 74, respectively. Accordingly, the twoouter mist streams 86′, 86″ contain cool mist particles and the centermist stream 86 contains warm mist particles when the heater mechanism 78is energized or cool mist particles if the heater mechanism 78 isde-energized.

With reference to FIGS. 5 and 6, a fourth embodiment of the misthumidifier 90 is similar to the second embodiment 40, having first andsecond nebulization assemblies 92, 94. The nebulization device 108 ofeach nebulization assembly 92, 94 draws water from the assembly waterchamber 100 and discharges a cool water mist 110 into a flow chamber112. Water from a water supply 96 held in a tank 98 is delivered to astream level 99 disposed above the flow chamber 112 of each nebulizationassembly 92, 94 by way of a pump 102 and a supply line 104. The waterthen falls from the stream level 99 into the water chamber 100 of eachnebulization assembly 92, 94. If an excess of water is supplied from thewater supply, this excess flow returns to the water supply by a recycleflow path 106.

A fan 114 in each of the nebulization assemblies 92, 94 blows air intothe flow chamber 112 via an air supply line 116 and a nozzle 117,forcing the mist 110 from the flow chamber 112 into the ambientatmosphere 34. The nozzle 117 may direct the flow of air either acrossthe surface of the water in the water chamber 100 or towards the surfaceof the water in the water chamber 100. A heater mechanism 118 isdisposed in the air supply line 116 of one of the nebulizationassemblies 92, 94. If the heater mechanism 118 is energized, the heatgenerated by the heater mechanism 118 heats the air, which converts thecool mist in the flow chamber 112 to a warm mist. In addition, heatabsorption by the mist 110 causes evaporation of some of the water massfrom the relatively large surface area of the mist particles, reducingthe size of the mist particles. The humidifier 90 may include a poroustray 120 that supports decorative rocks 122 that make contact with themist 110 before the mist is discharged.

Similar to the second embodiment 40, the humidifier 90 may be operatedin a number of modes. For example, the humidifier 90 may be operatedwith only a single nebulization assembly 92, 94 in operation or withboth nebulization assemblies 92, 94 in operation. The first nebulizationassembly 92 may be operated with the heater mechanism 118 energized orde-energized. The humidifier control system 124 allows variable speedoperation of the fan(s) 114 and variable heat output operation of theheater mechanism 118. Accordingly, the humidifier 90 may 1) produce coolmist only (second nebulization assembly only 94; first and secondnebulization assemblies 92, 94 with heater mechanism 118 de-energized);2) produce warm mist only (first nebulization assembly 92 only withheater mechanism 118 energized); or 3) produce a mix of cool and warmmist (first and second nebulization assemblies 92, 94 with heatermechanism 118 energized).

The subject humidifier 10, 40, 70, 90 provides a high level of watersaturation in air, similar to a conventional steam humidifier, butwithout creating a potential safety hazard by boiling the water. Inaddition, the mist emitted from the humidifier 10, 40, 70, 90 provides avisually elegant mist emission effect.

It will be appreciated that various of the above-disclosed and otherfeatures and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirablycombined into many other different systems or applications. Also thatvarious presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives,modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequentlymade by those skilled in the art which are also intended to beencompassed by the following claims.

1. A mist humidifier comprising: a water supply adapted to provide aflow of water; at least one nebulization device adapted to nebulize atleast a portion of the flow of water and discharge a flow of mistparticles in a downstream direction; and at least one heater mechanismadapted to selectively heat at least a portion of the flow of mistparticles.
 2. The mist humidifier of claim 1 wherein the nebulizationdevice is an ultra-sonic transducer.
 3. The mist humidifier of claim 1wherein the heater mechanism is a wire heater or a positive temperaturecoefficient (PTC) ceramic heater.
 4. The mist humidifier of claim 3wherein the heater mechanism has a variable heat output.
 5. The misthumidifier of claim 1 further comprising: a fan; and a flow chamber;wherein the nebulization device discharges the flow of mist particlesinto the flow chamber and the fan draws the flow of mist particles fromthe flow chamber, through the heater mechanism, and discharges the flowof mist particles from the humidifier.
 6. The mist humidifier of claim 5wherein the fan has a variable output.
 7. The mist humidifier of claim 5wherein the heater mechanism is selectively operable to heat the flow ofmist particles.
 8. The mist humidifier of claim 5 wherein the watersupply comprises: a tank defining a primary water supply; a secondarywater supply; a pump; and a supply line; wherein water is delivered fromthe primary water supply to the secondary water supply through thesupply line by the pump and water is drawn from the secondary watersupply by the nebulization device.
 9. The mist humidifier of claim 8wherein the water supply also comprises a recycle flow path adapted tocarry water from the secondary water supply to the primary water supply.10. The mist humidifier of claim 1 further comprising first and secondnebulization assemblies, each of the nebulization assemblies includingone of the nebulization devices.
 11. The mist humidifier of claim 10wherein the water supply comprises: a tank; a pump; and a supply line;wherein water is delivered from the tank to the nebulization device ofeach nebulization assembly through the supply line by the pump.
 12. Themist humidifier of claim 11 wherein the water supply also comprises arecycle flow path adapted to carry water from the nebulizationassemblies to the tank.
 13. The mist humidifier of claim 10 wherein theheater mechanism is disposed in the first nebulization assembly and isselectively operable to heat the flow of mist particles.
 14. The misthumidifier of claim 10 further comprising a fan adapted to blow the flowof mist particles from the first and second nebulization assemblies andfrom the humidifier.
 15. The mist humidifier of claim 10 furthercomprising first and second fans adapted to blow the flow of mistparticles from the first and second nebulization assemblies,respectively, and from the humidifier.
 16. The mist humidifier of claim15 wherein each of the nebulization assemblies also includes a flowchamber and an air supply line, the air supply line of the firstnebulization assembly connecting the first fan to the flow chamber ofthe first nebulization assembly, the air supply line of the secondnebulization assembly connecting the second fan to the flow chamber ofthe second nebulization assembly, the heater mechanism being disposed inthe air supply line of the first nebulization assembly.
 17. The misthumidifier of claim 10 further comprising: a porous tray positioned inthe flow of mist particles; and a plurality of decorative rocks disposedon the tray.
 18. The mist humidifier of claim 1 wherein the nebulizationdevice has a plurality of nebulization locations or the humidifierincludes a plurality of nebulization devices, the heater mechanism beingpositioned downstream of one of the nebulization locations or one of thenebulization devices, the humidifier further comprising a baffledisposed intermediate the heater mechanism and the one of thenebulization locations or the one of the nebulization devices.
 19. Themist humidifier of claim 18 wherein the nebulization devices or thenebulization locations are positioned side-by-side and the heatermechanism and the baffle are disposed above the center nebulizationdevice or the center nebulization location.
 20. The mist humidifier ofclaim 1 further comprising: a nebulization assembly, the nebulizationassembly including the nebulization device and a flow chamber; a fanadapted to blow a supply air through the flow chamber; and an air heatermechanism adapted to heat the supply of air before the supply of airenters the flow chamber.
 21. The mist humidifier of claim 20 furthercomprising: a water chamber disposed in the flow chamber, the waterchamber being adapted to hold a water supply having a surface; an airsupply line; and a nozzle; wherein the air supply line connects the fanto the flow chamber and the nozzle directs the heated supply of airtowards the surface of the water supply in the water chamber or acrossthe surface of the water supply in the water chamber.
 22. The misthumidifier of claim 21 wherein the water supply comprise: a tankdefining a primary water supply; and a recycle flow path adapted tocarry water from the water chamber to the primary water supply.
 23. Themist humidifier of claim 22 wherein the water supply further comprises:a pump; and a supply line; wherein water is pumped from the primarywater supply through the supply line by the pump to a stream leveldisposed above the flow chamber, the water falling from the stream levelinto the water chamber.
 24. A mist humidifier comprising: a water supplyadapted to provide a flow of water; a nebulization device adapted tonebulize at least a portion of the flow of water and discharge a flow ofmist particles in a downstream direction; a heater mechanism adapted toselectively heat at least a portion of the flow of mist particles; and afan adapted to draws the flow of mist particles from the nebulizationdevice, through the heater mechanism, and discharge the flow of mistparticles from the humidifier.